Georgia suffered a tough recruiting loss, but it wasn't to the Tennessee Vols as expected

The Georgia Bulldogs suffered a tough recruiting loss this week, but it wasn't to the Tennessee Vols (which was the expectation a couple of weeks ago).

On Tuesday, 2025 four-star linebacker Jadon Perlotte flipped his commitment from Georgia to the USC Trojans.

Perlotte, 6-foot-3/202 lbs from Buford, GA, is rated by 247Sports as the No. 16 linebacker in the nation and the No. 13 player in the state of Georgia. He had been committed to the Bulldogs since late 2022.

In early July, On3's Chad Simmons predicted that Perlotte would flip to Tennessee. At the time, it looked like a smart prediction. Perlotte was coming off a solid official visit to Tennessee a couple of weeks earlier and there were rumblings that he planned to return to Knoxville at the end of July for an unofficial visit.

Instead, Perlotte flew out to Los Angeles this past weekend for an unofficial visit to USC, his final visit before flipping his commitment.

According to 247Sports' Connor Morrissette, Tennessee was USC's biggest competition for Perlotte. And if he had visited Knoxville this past weekend instead of Los Angeles, the feeling is that Perlotte would've flipped to Tennessee.

"The real threat for USC in this recruitment was Tennessee," noted Morrissette . "The Volunteer coaching staff expected to have Perlotte on campus over the weekend, but the linebacker instead chose to visit USC. If Perlotte had visited Tennessee, the staff there was confident he would have committed."

There's still a little over four months to go until the early signing period starts, so this recruitment could still take a few twists and turns.

Related: Quote from Nico Iamaleava shows why Vols fans should no longer worry about a big issue that plagued Tennessee in 2022 and 2023